The Mid Game Blues

[Unholy Cow]

As the title suggests, I was wondering if I could get a few tips of what to do in the mide game, when several options open up especially considering what type of victory to aim for. I'll use my current game as an example. Settings are noble/continents/standard. I'm playing with Ragnar.

The story so far:
The beginning of the game went well - I managed to keep up with the AI in terms of expansion and tech and even managed one or two wonders. I discovered both Ghandi and Louis on my continent and they were quite close to my starting position. However, I occupied the ideal position in the centre of the continent so my expansion southwards was mostly unhindered.

Both of my neighbours started pushing my borders with high culture so I decided one of them must go. I was leaning towards the smaller, closer Louis, and Hinduism (which Ghandi founded) spreading to my lands before Buddhism (which Louis founded) sealed the deal. I think I made three crucial mistakes here - which were namely NOT declaring on Ghandi instead (weak military then), attacking Louis with too few troops, the majority of which were swordsmen and NOT getting Ghandi involved to help. This meant the war dragged on for centuries as I had to constantly reinforce my army.

While I do now control all of former France (and yummy Paris with three wonders) Ghandi expanded like a rabbit and has an enormous culture. I met the AIs on the other continent, a as they are all a loving Jewish community (except the Confucian pariah Saladin) they have quite a large tech lead. Further compounding my woes, the long war severely depleted my army, to the point that I am second last in the power graph, only just ahead of Mehmed who whored himself off to Cyrus. For some insane reason Ghandi is third - I believe he was going to try and take advantage of my weak situation after the annihilation of France, but wimped out.

Thus my question is now, what course should I take? Should I do an enormous military buildup and try and take out Ghandi to gain mastery over my continent? Won't that mean I lose my only friend? Should I instead continue the economic consolidation that I have started as I gained control of Louis' former lands? Any tips, plus anything on how I could manage my empire better (especially with specialists) would be much appreciated.

I've attached where I'm up to and the original save, if anyone would like to show me how its done

 

[johncross21]

Switch all your hammmers to research - beeline rifling (gunpowder, replaceable parts) then build an army to oust ghandi. it makes sense to research rifling - which is not far away - before growing your army

My feeling on the other strategy which is to invade the other continent is that it will be difficult to get a toehold.

Ghandi is fairly peacable but I would be worried about being surrounded on both sides while my army was on another continent

plus cyrus and saladin have a big tech lead. you might catch them up with a decisive war against ghandi as you will have a bigger land mass but if they are trading you don't have the capacity to catch them with your current resource base. On noble they outproduce you

not a great position but your analysis of why you are behind rings true

still on for time victory if you can get a big rifle force in the field - and surprise ghandi - with rifles might be able to knock out top cities quickly and pillage the rest

 

[futurehermit]

Wipe Gandhi with whipped/drafted renaissance units (cav/grens/rifles). After you own your continent (be sure to fill in gaps with settlers), cottage spam, lock in cottage civics and massage diplomatic relations overseas. You want a tech-trading buddy or two but you want to keep the leader from getting a lot of trades if you can help it. You also want to keep the leader locked in warfare as much as possible (bribe AIs into war with him).

If you manage this successfully, you should be able to catch up, pass them, and ultimately win.

If not, try again next game.

3 or less civs on my starting continent, I'll go space race because intercontinental warfare is time consuming and difficult. 4 or more I'll go domination.

 

[Sammcs]

The worst way to fight a war is to capture a few cities and continue fighting. Your war with Louis was way too long. You probably should have just quickly captured a few cities, sued for peace, and then improved the economy and teched. Then you rally the troops once more for a final showdown. If you fight every war for conquest you won't like the outcome 9 times out of 10. Fighting early wars that drag on THAT long are hideous for your tech pace. You also have a few cities that won't be able to work all their tiles, or they'll grow so incredibly slow they won't make good use of the cottages.

 

[Eshnunna]

Yeah, since Gandhi is always weak in the beginning, you should have conquered him right away, while preventing Louis from expanding too much.

Anyways when you feel you won't be able to take more cities after an assault it's a good idea to pillage everything in sight (esp. w/ 2-move units), sue for peace when they're back to the stone age, and buildup/tech to finsh em off.

But on topic, pulling a victory after a milennium war will sure be tricky... and time consuming. Better replay it (after regenerating from the autosave, or putting your cities at their original place, pretending you didn't know where the ressoureces were...), and find out how it's done all by yourself using the advice in the above posts (far more rewarding and educationnal)

 

[madscientist]

Comments on what you could have done and what you can still do

Should have: Switched to Buddhism and Monarchy, attack Ghandi with Lois help (Give hime what he wanted for it). You are agressive and should have a superior army. Plunder Ghandi and take some but not all cities then sue for peace. By now you have added some cities, weakened ghadi, gotten some experienced unit (which should have survived against the week indian) and ready to stab Louis in the back (you are a viking). Finish louis off if possible, save Ghandi for later if you like.

Can Now: Tech and build an army and navy (again you are a Viking). Switch to free religion (if you have liberalism) and Vassalage. Try to switch other civics to buddy up with any other civc (free market for hannibal/musa). While you are buddying up turn your built up army on Ghandi and take him out, get a few other civs off shore to join. If you can get them to go against Saladin (who should hate them already). Once Ghandi is under foot or dead, man the boat and attack saladin (who usually does not leave his religion) and go for Communism for the economy. At that point you are on your own.

Best advice without seeing the map.